Phorbol is a natural, plant-derived organic compound of the tigliane family of diterpenes. It was first isolate in 1934 as a hydrolysis product of croton oil derived from the seeds of Croton tiglium, a leafy shrub of the Euphorbiaceae family that is native to Southeastern Asia. Various esters of phorbol have important biological properties including the reported ability to mimic diacylglycerols and activate protein kinase C (PKC), modulating downstream cell signaling pathways including the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. Phorbol esters are additionally thought to bind to chimaerins, the Ras activator RasGRP, and the vesicle-priming protein Munc-13 (Brose N, Rosenmund C., JCell Sci; 115:4399-411 (2002)). Some phorbol esters also induce nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB). The most notable physiological property of phorbol esters is their reported capacity to act as tumor promoters.
12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), also called phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), is a phorbol ester used in models of carcinogenesis as an inducer for differentiation and/or apoptosis in multiple cell lines and primary cells. TPA has also been reported to cause an increase in circulating white blood cells and neutrophils in patients whose bone marrow function has been depressed by chemotherapy. (Han Z. T. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95, 5363-5365 (1998)) and inhibit the HIV-cytopathic effects on MT-4 cells. (Mekkawy S. et al., Phytochemistry 53, 47-464 (2000)). However, due to a variety of factors, including caustic reactions when contacted with the skin and concerns for its potential toxicity, TPA has not been shown to be an effective tool for treating, managing, or preventing HIV or AIDS.
Current therapeutics for cytopathic diseases such as various forms of neoplastic disease and viral diseases such as HIV and AIDS suffer from a number of drawbacks such as insufficient potency and intolerable side effects. For many patients, toxic side effects of diminish their quality of life to such an extent they simply stop taking their medications. For others, therapeutic schedules are so complicated and inconvenient that compliance is limited. Other patients experience excellent results initially, but suffer relapses despite full compliance with therapeutic regimens.
Treatment failure in most HIV cases is attributed to the emergence of resistant strains of HIV. Incomplete viral suppression caused by insufficient drug potency, poor compliance due to complicated drug regimens, and other factors contribute to this problem. Additionally, during the long period of clinical latency of HIV infection, a subset of quiescent memory CD4 T-cells harbor integrated but transcriptionally silent proviruses. This reservoir protects latent HIV from retroviral therapy and poses a substantial barrier to eradication of HIV in infected patients.
Cancer treatments generally involve a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and/or radiation treatment to eradicate neoplastic cells in a patient. However, all of these approaches pose significant drawbacks and added risks such as increased susceptibility to infection. Surgery, for example, may be contraindicated due to the health of a patient. Additionally, it may be difficult to obtain clear margins around a rumor, resulting in some neoplastic tissue being left behind and an increased chance of recurrence of the disease. Almost all current chemotherapeutic agents are toxic, and chemotherapy causes significant side effects including severe nausea, bone marrow depression, and immunosuppression. They also cannot be specifically targeted to cancer cells and therefore may kill healthy cells as well as cancerous ones. Additionally, there are frequently relapsed/refractory neoplasms which are resistant to current therapeutics.
There is clearly a need for new and more effective treatments for individuals suffering from cytopathic disorders, including those caused by neoplastic disease as well as viral infections such as HIV and AIDS.